The Legacy of Living in a Dream World: A Sense of Alienation and Exile in Dream China by Jonathan Locke Hart

Amer Akhtar; Sami Ullah; Muhammad Imran; Muhammad Afzaal

Abstract:

This study investigates Jonathan Locke Hart's experience of how the interaction between life and his spiritually dreamed and the idealized world creates an identity for him in alienation. The study takes Hart’s "Dream China" to identify his nostalgic reflection and a comparative analysis of an ideal world with real-life understandings. The psycho-analytical approach is used to investigate the poet's creation of identity in exile while considering theoretical considerations of Hegel, Feuerbach, Melvin Seeman, and Filiz Peach's approaches towards alienation. This study identifies that "Dream China" is not a cry of an empty hollow-self but a conscious effort to bring reputation to the human world and life. Besides, certain aspects of human existence are regarded as a credential, but anguish is also summarized, acknowledging the aspiration to muster up courage and trust to mold every 'ruin'. "Dream China" is not an effort of a mumbling expression under his breath, but a willing and determined effort to classify the idealistic world as a vivid picturesque view of his solemn approach. In "Dream China" Hart, like any devoted, responsive, and compassionate soul makes the realities and formalities more noticeable and perceptible, as they could be. Every aspect in every sense is likely lived out to dramatically intimate the bareness of a familiar land with the bounties of an imaginative world. The aspect of existentialism further is a focal point of this study to inspect Hart's approach towards certain realities of life as expressed in 'Dream China'.Keywords: Jonathan Locke Hart, exile, dream, blessing, warfare, 'Dream China'

research from:

• Foundation University - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Year:

2020

Type of Publication:

Article

Journal:

Al-Qalam

Volume:

25

Number:

1

Pages:

270-287

Month:

7

ISSN:

2071-8683